Something to Envy- Darkest Powers Chronicles
by Eletha Landon
Summary: Birthday!Three-Shot for my lovely friend, xSweetEternityx! Something goes wrong while on a mission to rescue the newest batch of experiments. An outsider observes her saviors while the three of them flee for their lives and she sees something between her two rescuers that she can only wish she'll have in the future. But she worries, will the two of them make it out of this alive?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note- So this is a birthday One-Shot that is actually going to be a Two-Shot- or whatever- for my dearest xSweetEternityx! I actually had something else finished for her, but I hated it. It wasn't my best work. I never put out something I don't put my all into, especially when you readers deserve my best. And Sweet definitely deserves something I put a lot of thought into. She's been a great friend over the last couple of years and I'm glad to have gotten to know her and read her work. Happy Birthday, hun! :D**

**Now, with these One-Shots, I usually just switch between Derek or Chloe narrating the story, but this time I wanted something a little different. **

**Last year, Sweet's One-Shot was Imperfections, where Chloe was five or so months pregnant and she and Derek had gotten in a huge fight about whether or not they should reply to a letter they had received from the Pack. This takes place a few years later. The idea has been in my head for a few months now and I finally got it on the screen. AND on top of that, I wanted an outsider's view, looking in on them. Someone who doesn't know them from a hole in the wall. At first, it was going to be really short and to the point… but the mess below sort of spilled out instead.**

**I guess all I can say is: Don't kill me, be patient… Oh, and enjoy!**

**Something to Envy**

**Part 1**

I hadn't known either of them long. Basically just as long as I've been doing this whole 'running' business. That? Well, to make a really, _really_, long story short, I happen to be something called an Agito Half-demon. Basically someone who could move things around with their mind. Crazy, I know. I had only just found this out about myself barely a week ago. I had been pissed that my eleventh grade English teacher had accused me of plagiarism on my essay and had sentenced me to a month's detention of smacking erasers. In front of the entire class no less. All I could think about was wanting so desperately to smack the erasers against the back of her head.

And it happened.

I should have thought about the outcome of trying to tell someone that the crazy phenomenon of a middle-aged woman screaming down the school's halls as chalk board erasers chased her had been my doing. Or that I thought it had been me. I told my best friend Aimee. She had turned me into the school counselor, concerned for my health, naturally. My grandmother- my guardian since my dad was a no-name and my mom had walked out when I was young- took me to a 'special' hospital where the doctors specialized in these kinds of things. Originally, I had thought that I had gone to a clinic for crazies. Boy, had I been wrong.

I came to find out- through a lot of snooping considering I wasn't about to let these people convince me I had been hallucinating- that I was part of a revived experiment to subdue the bad side-effects of supernatural genetics that had taken place twelve years before. Genesis III. Whatever that meant. Based on what little information I was able to gather, funding had gone south when Genesis II failed. Or, really that the majority of their experiments had escaped and were staying out from under the radar. Genesis III was being conducted under the nose of something called a Cabal. I wasn't sure what that meant either.

All I knew at that point was that I was a part of something bad, and I needed to get out. My lucky break came two days later. Apparently whoever was in charge of the experiments wasn't very good about keeping it under wraps. Because people found out. Other supernaturals.

Those from Genesis II in fact.

Four had come to bust me out. A witch, a sorcerer, a werewolf and a necromancer. By the time they had told me what they were, I was no longer surprised by what was really out there in the world. I followed them without hesitation.

But none of that was really the point at the moment. Perhaps it was the fact that in little under a week, everything I had ever known, my whole life had been flipped upside down and I was looking for a distraction. With the werewolf and the necromancer of the four from Genesis II who had come to save me, I found that distraction.

We were standing in an alley. Only the three of us as we had gotten separated from Tori- the witch- and Simon- the sorcerer- while a team of Half-demons chased us from the motel we had been harboring in after my escape. We were catching our breath, while Derek- the werewolf- stood at the edge, his senses magnified to detect if we had been followed.

Derek was a large, steady young man in his mid to late-twenties. As far as his build, he was everything a teenage girl dreamed of when they read about werewolves in young adult novels. Broad shoulders, bulging biceps and tall enough that a professional basketball talent scout would hire him in a second. He had a shock of black hair cut short, wind swept across his forehead in a messy disarray and astonishingly vibrant jade eyes. Sharp and intelligent. Hard and guarded.

Unless they were looking at _her_.

The necromancer, Chloe, kept close to me and asked if I was okay. For the most part, physically, I was perfectly fine. Psychologically, well, that was what I needed the distraction for.

I asked Chloe if she was alright. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Derek glancing over his shoulder at us, as if also wondering the answer. Chloe surprised me with a laugh.

"Don't you worry about us. We've been at this 'running' business for years. Just focus on being on your guard and watching your back."

Chloe couldn't have been too much younger than Derek, considering they were both a part of Genesis II in their early teens; but she still didn't look that much older than myself. I think it was her height- being a good half a foot shorter than me- and her young face. She had large, brilliant blue eyes and eyelashes any girl would envy. Her hair was long and wavy, falling to her mid-back in glorious blonde tresses. She seemed really nice and kind, caring and compassionate. I found myself sticking close to her, using her calming aura as an anchor in the current situation.

And I wasn't the only one.

Derek left his post at the edge of the alley and walked up beside her, standing close enough that they were centimeters from touching.

"We need to move." He said, his nostrils flaring. "Once we're far enough away we'll call Jeremy and Clay and let them know that there was a change in plans."

When I gave Chloe a questioning look upon hearing new names, she informed me that they were both werewolves from the North American Pack. I branched.

"There's a whole pack out there waiting to meet us? Why not send the whole army from the beginning? We would have had a better chance of things going as planned."

Chloe shook her head.

"As great as it would have been to see Clayton and Nick pulverize some Edison Group wannabees, the Pack is the only thing guaranteeing our safety right now. No one knows they're harboring us old 'experiments.' If they show up for you and someone passes that information, then suspicions of the Pack's involvement arise. That not only endangers us, but them. We had to make your captors think that we were acting alone, as an old crusade. But Jeremy and Clayton are close, just in case."

"Well 'just in case' is happening right now," Derek rumbled, shifting uncomfortably next to Chloe as if urging her to realize that we needed to press on. It was clear that he didn't like standing in one spot too long while we were being followed. But it was more than that. He kept glancing at the alley's mouth, just waiting for our pursuers to run by and spot us, then his eyes were back on Chloe, as if he didn't like _her _being in one spot too long.

"Alright, well, you're the plan guy. What's the plan?" Chloe asked.

"You and Megara-"

"Meg." I corrected. He waved it off.

"You and Meg slip over the fence at the end of the alley and head south towards the wood just on the border of town. Keep heading that way until you hit the highway. Walk to the next mile marker then hide. Call Jeremy and tell him where to pick you up."

"And what about you?" Chloe asked, brows rising in a challenging manner as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'll throw off their trail. I'm sure they have a couple witches casting sensory spells. I'll trigger them and-"

"No." Chloe said.

"Chloe," Derek started, voice low. He looked like he was about to loom over her, show her that he was bigger and in charge. I was rendered speechless, however, when Chloe held her ground, meeting his eye straight on despite their significant height difference.

They faced off like that for a long minute, neither of them faltering. I was about to urge the fact that we were all kind of running for our lives here when Chloe finally sighed.

"You're so stubborn." She huffed, pushing past Derek and heading for the edge of the alley. "We'll figure something else out."

"I'm stubborn?" He argued. I would have laughed at the interaction if we were in a significantly less dire situation. "We don't have time to-"

Derek froze, his head tilting as if he heard something, then he cursed. He was across the alley lightning fast, reaching out and snatching the back of Chloe's jacket before yanking her back out of the opening of the alley. He clapped his hand over her mouth as she began her protests, but was rendered completely silent when we heard, "Let's check down this street!"

Chloe wriggled out of Derek's grasp and said, "Alright, new plan. We _all_ hop the fence and we _all_ head south. Nobody causes any diversions because it's a little late for those."

There was a distant clomp of quick footsteps and Derek didn't even try arguing.

We hopped the fence.

We found that patch of wood that Derek had mentioned and we ran straight for it. However, we were spotted by our pursuers that were inconveniently a little over a block away and they were instantly on our tail. Derek suggested we run ahead while he held them off. Chloe wasn't having it. They argued some more, then suddenly, Derek skidded to a halt.

"What're you-" Chloe started, but her voice was cut off by an earsplitting crack.

"Get down!" Derek shouted. I dropped. I didn't really remember deciding to do so. I just heard the fire and Derek's command and reacted. Not a second later, there was an audible whoosh over our heads then a thunk a few feet behind us, dirt spraying up from the forest floor as whatever it was hit.

I flipped onto my back, searching until my eyes landed on something bronze. My heart slammed against my ribcage.

"They're shooting at us?" I bellowed, wide eyes finding Chloe a yard away. She was still on the ground, head swiveling to find our attackers. I knew they had been far enough behind that they couldn't instantly take us down, but, then again, I didn't think they'd be shooting at us either.

About a hundred feet from where we came, I noticed two of the thugs I had seen chasing us from the hospital. They were bearing down on us, guns wielded, shouting orders for us to stay down. I looked from Chloe to Derek to see what they were going to do. Derek was looking around, frantically searching for an escape route. But that wasn't going to do us any good if they had guns on us and weren't afraid to use them.

But maybe there was something that _I_ could do about that. The whole time, I'd been riding Chloe and Derek's train out of that hospital, not really helping them in return of the giant risk they took to come and save me other than carrying their supplies. They were in danger now because of me and I was not going to settle for that.

I focused on the goon closer to Derek, zeroing in on the semi-automatic 22 he held on him. I imagined it flying out of his hands and off in Chloe's direction. Even if I could retrieve it, I wouldn't know the first thing about using it. Suddenly, the man released a gasp as the gun ripped from his grasp. He stared as it fell to his feet, perplexed, his friend distracted by it as well. That was all Derek needed.

He was on his feet and on the man with the gun so fast I could have blinked and missed it. The man was caught off guard but not enough to recover and release a couple surprise shots. He seemed to have missed though as Derek grabbed the front of his shirt and whipped him at the other goon staggering forward for his gun. They both tumbled with grunts and snarls to the ground.

Chloe leapt up to her feet and picked up the first man's discarded gun. She held it on the two guards as they struggled to get up. They saw her and froze. Derek marched up to them, pried the other gun from the guard he threw then hit them both over the head with the butt, knocking them unconscious.

"What the hell were you thinking!" Chloe snapped, spinning on Derek. "You get on my case every time I do something reckless and then you pull that stunt? You could have gotten-"

Her words stopped short, blue eyes widening in disbelief. I followed her gaze and felt my heart plummet from my chest to the pit of my stomach.

Derek's gray shirt was soaked in two patches of crimson, the thick liquid percolating through the fibers of the fabric from its source of two holes; one in his chest, the other in his lower left abdomen. He released a strangled groan, the adrenaline from the moment dying out as quickly as blood was pouring from his wounds.

His knees hit the ground.

**Aaaand, cliffhanger! I know you're going to hate me for this one Sweet. The second part is already started. I'll have it up sometime next week- I swear this time- because I can't leave you guys hanging on this. **

**Let me know what you think and go wish Sweet a happy birthday! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note- I'm not going to say much here, mostly because you guys are going to hate me at the end. .**

**Something to Envy**

**Part 2**

For a moment, all I could hear was a loud ringing in my ears. All I could feel was my blood running cold. All I could see was pain in Derek's green eyes in a vision tunneled by blood.

It was Chloe's cries that brought me back.

"Derek!" She screamed, racing to his side. If I had seen anger and annoyance in her features towards him before, I wasn't seeing it now. I saw fear. And anguish. As if she had been the one who had gotten shot.

"Oh no," Chloe breathed, supporting Derek's weight as he slumped with a grunt. More blood gushed from the bullet holes. "No, no, no!"

I watched, feet rooted to the ground as Chloe skimmed her hand over the places Derek was shot. From what I had learned of the human anatomy in a class I had taken the previous semester, he wasn't injured in any vital organs. His heart and lungs for example. But he was losing a lot of blood, especially from his lower abdomen, which wasn't good.

"I'm fine," Derek muttered, voice strained, breath labored. He tried to lift himself, only to collapse against his right side, back into Chloe.

"You're n-not," Chloe retorted, tone a touch shy of shrill. She glanced around wildly, looking for something. What, I had no idea. Help. An answer. Written instructions on what to do. But we didn't have anything or anyone. We were alone.

Derek was losing more and more control of holding his weight with each second that passed, meaning Chloe was struggling to hold up all two-hundred plus pounds of him as he fought to draw in breath. She winced with each of his ragged gasps, becoming more and more unfocused, like she couldn't possibly think or function knowing he was in pain, dying.

I couldn't take it.

"Do something!" I exclaimed.

At first Chloe jumped at the sound of my voice. Then she blinked a few times, and shook herself out of it. Her cerulean orbs were suddenly hard with determination, as if she knew that she couldn't afford to worry right now, because it wasn't helping Derek.

"Help me sit him against that tree. We need to staunch the bleeding."

I assisted her- as carefully as I could- and heaved Derek over a half a foot so that his weight was now supported by the closest tree. He fell back with a mangled groan, trying to help us despite Chloe's orders for him to simply concentrate on breathing. She then pulled off her jacket, followed by her t-shirt. She was topless for less than a second before her jacket was back on. Considering how badly her hands were shaking, she moved fast, not even daring to risk anymore time where Derek was left helplessly bleeding out. She pulled a switchblade from the inside of her boot and used it to cut her t-shirt in half. Then she lifted Derek's left hand and had him hold one half of the shirt with pressure over his stomach wound while she held the other half over the one in the middle of his chest.

After that, Chloe reached into her pocket and surfaced a cell phone. She tossed it to me, asking in exchange for the backpack. She ordered me to search through her phone book for a Jeremy and to put him on speaker phone. I did as I was told as she rummaged through the military style backpack. From it, she hauled out a generic looking first aid kit. I found Jeremy's name in the phone and had been about to hit the call button, except, the screen switched to show an incoming call.

Jeremy.

I shook off the strange coincidence and answered it.

"Chloe?" said a man's voice.

"Jeremy, s-something's happened. We can't meet you at the rendezvous point." Chloe answered.

"What happened?" The man, Jeremy, asked calmly. Chloe wasn't nearly as calm, seeming afraid to answer or even physically unable to.

"D-Derek w-was-" A deep breath, then, with a shaky voice. "Derek was shot."

There was a curse on the other end of the line, though, it wasn't Jeremy's voice.

"Where are they?" The second voice asked, one almost as low as Derek's but with a prominent southern twang to it.

Chloe gave them our location then said, "Jeremy, i-it's bad. He's still conscious but he's losing too much blood."

"Do you have the first aid kit I packed you?" He asked. She gave him a confirmation.

"Listen carefully. Don't tamper with the wound until I get there. You need to look for the QuikClot gauzes."

"How far away are you?" I couldn't help but ask. Even if Chloe could stop the bleeding, the more time Derek spent with those bullets in his body, the more he was at risk.

"Twenty minutes-" Jeremy started but was interrupted by the second voice.

"Ten."

"Did you find the Quikclot?"

"I'm still looking," Chloe answered, hectically throwing whatever she didn't need in the immediate moment out of her way as she rummaged through the first aid kit.

"Where was he shot?" Jeremy asked.

"Diaphragm," Derek muttered, clenching his teeth as I'm sure it hurt him to talk. "And lower abdomen."

Another curse from the southern man.

"Make that seven minutes." He drawled out harshly, his voice accompanied by the sound of an engine revving.

"Found it!" Chloe exclaimed.

Jeremy took Chloe step by step on how to apply the Quikclot. She used her switchblade to cut open Derek's shirt before 'dressing' his abdomen wound. It was really silly of me considering the circumstances, but I blushed and glanced away awkwardly upon laying eyes on Derek's shirtless- and bloody- torso. Let's just say no man should look like they were a photo-shopped body builder image straight from a men's health magazine. Derek hissed out a string of curses when Chloe touched his wound and it surprised me when she laughed. Forcefully, but still a laugh.

"You endure weekly, agonizing transformations into a wolf without so much as a whimper, but you get shot and turn into a complete baby."

A rough chuckle and a half, weak smile escaped Derek before he grit his teeth again.

Once the bleeding was cut off by the clotting material, Chloe moved on to address his other wound. His chest wound had to be taken care of differently, according to Jeremy, meaning there was no seemingly easy, quick fix like the QuikClot. Something about the possibility of a 'sucking-chest wound' and using a credit card to cover it. I was having a hard time following. It all looked like some sort of first aid you'd have to perform in the military while out on the battlefield.

Jeremy was about to sign off so he could concentrate on finding us but Derek quickly spoke up.

"Simon and Tori. We separated and-"

"Don't worry about them." Jeremy interrupted. "They made it to the alternate rendezvous and they're with Nick. He called just before I got ahold of you. They're fine and we'll meet them back at Stonehaven."

With a promise of a wait less than five minutes, Jeremy hung up, leaving the three of us alone again. I felt significantly calmer seeing that Derek had stopped bleeding and seemed out of immediate danger. But that didn't make me feel any better about it. He wouldn't have been in this situation if it weren't for me.

"You're going to be okay," I heard Chloe say, voice barely above a whisper. I glanced up to see her brushing some of Derek's dark hair from his eyes, his jade orbs watching her softly as she did. He was still having trouble breathing, but he didn't seem to be suffering as much as he had a moment ago. For the first time since the last hour that I've known him, he seemed calm, relishing Chloe's touch as her hand cupped his cheek.

Her left hand…

It was then that I noticed the small ring on her ring finger. A skinny golden band with a dainty little diamond nestled in the middle. Derek reached up and grasped her hand in his, wincing at the movement. And I saw it there too, a thick golden band on his left hand.

They were married.

I thought I had seen it before, back when we were in the alley. While they were having their standoff, Derek's body language seemed to have been saying 'I'm not letting you put yourself in danger,' while hers said, 'I'm not leaving without you.' The way he stood so close to her, eyes skipping back in her direction to make sure that she was still there, still safe; it was so obvious now. He was in love with her.

With Chloe it was a little more subtle, until he was hurt. Now she gripped his hand so tight her knuckles were white, as if she feared that he'd fade away if she let go. She held him as if he were her lifeline, her rock, her tether that kept her grounded and together. He lowered her hand back down to his lap as she leaned her forehead against his.

"You're going to be okay," She repeated softly.

I watched, mystified, as Derek dropped his head against her shoulder, burying his face into the crook of her neck before inhaling deeply. It must have been a werewolf think, knowing and relishing the scent of his love, his mate. I'd never seen anything like it before. No movie, or anything read in a book could do justice to what I was witnessing with my very eyes between these two.

All I could do in this moment was hope with all my might that Chloe's words were going to remain a reality, that Derek was going to be okay and that he and Chloe were going to make it out of this together and alive. Because if they didn't, then what hope did I have in my future if something this beautiful couldn't exist?

As if remembering my existence, Chloe cast me a sideways glance. She smiled weakly and said, "You'd think that being on the run most of our lives, we would have been better at the actual 'running' part." A curt, humorless laugh and she added. "Believe it or not, we've been in worse scraps with friendlies than we have with the enemy. Hell, when we first met the Pack, there was a minor misunderstanding that escalated far too quickly. Clayton nearly ripped Derek's throat out. It was a good thing Jeremy was there to break them up, much like all the fights Derek picks with Clay."

Chloe adjusted her shoulder, as if nudging at Derek with the accompany of the teasing lilt in her tone when she made that last comment. I think she was trying to lighten the grave atmosphere we had fallen victim to the moment we had realized Derek was hurt. She played it off as if trying to remind Derek that he's been through worse and would have no problem making it through this, but I could see right through that façade. She was trying to convince herself.

"Right, Derek?" She asked when he didn't seem to respond to her movement.

No answer.

I could practically see Chloe's heart jumpstart in synchronization with mine as she fumbled to pull Derek up again, bowing her head to meet his eyes, to make sure he was alright.

He wasn't.

His eyes were closed, a trickle of blood escaping from his parted lips, breathing no longer labored, but faint. Unconscious.

"D-Derek?" Chloe breathed, blue eyes wide again with absolute fear. She placed both hands on either side of his face, holding him up as he had fallen slack and unresponsive.

"Derek!" She exclaimed, giving him a soft shake, desperate for a reply, for him to open his eyes. I glanced down at his wounds, both still patched to the best of Chloe's ability with no sign of new blood. He must have lost too much blood before Chloe had been able to tend to the wounds.

"Wake up. P-please, wake up!" Chloe urged, tears welling in her glassy blue orbs. I stared, helpless, unable to do anything but sit there and watch as Derek was possibly dying.

"You c-can't leave me," Chloe pleaded, tears falling free, eyes locked on Derek's paling face, hands doing anything and everything to get him back to consciousness whether it was stroking his hair out of his face, wiping the sweat from his brow or patting his cheek. "Please, p-please wake up! You have to make it t-through this, Derek. You h-have to make it home. You have to k-keep learning from Jeremy, a-and teaching your students, a-and giving Clayton hell. You have to call Kit for his b-birthday, and k-keep teasing Tori about the crush she had on Simon when we were kids. You have to chew me out the next time I do s-something stupid and teach Jenni how to read and add and s-subtract. She n-needs her daddy, Derek, you can't go!"

A daughter…

They had a daughter.

I was on my feet within half a second, spinning, eyes scanning despite being fogged over with tears for any sign of Jeremy. Chloe didn't seem to notice as she continued to frantically get through to Derek. But I couldn't just sit there anymore and watch a love and a family crumble before my very eyes.

"Jeremy!" I screamed, hoping that he and the man with the southern accent- I was starting to gather that he must be this 'Clayton' Chloe keeps mentioning- were close enough to hear me. If they couldn't catch our scent like Derek had done in order to keep our distance from the guys chasing us, then they needed something that could lead them to us.

My voice.

"We're here! Jeremy!" I kept shouting, over and over, hoping-praying- that, any second now, they would break through the trees and save Derek, save both of them.

When I was starting to think that I wasn't being anymore helpful than I was sitting on my duff, I heard a twig snap and I spun, mouth open, ready to guide them to us. A tall man came bustling through the woods, and I was about to tell him that we needed to hurry and get Derek to a hospital- but then I noticed that this man wasn't Jeremy.

I had no idea what Jeremy looked like, having never met or seen the man in my life. But I had seen this man, back at the facility I had just escaped. He lifted his hand and the light glinted off of the object he held. Thinking quickly, I used my powers to rip the gun from his hand, but not before he pulled the trigger.

There was sharp pain in my leg as his shot hit my left thigh. I've never really tried imagining what it would feel like to be shot, but if I had before, I'm sure I would have thought it would have been more painful than this. As the man staggered in response to being disarmed, I glanced down at my wound, expecting to see a blotch of blood similar to the two on Derek's shirt. Only, I wasn't hit by a bullet.

I ripped out what looked like those tranquilizer darts animal control uses on wild animals. The assaulting weapon was confirmed to have a sleeping agent as the world around me spun out of focus. Suddenly, everything felt foggy and unsettling, as if sleep was the only thing that would make that queasy feeling go away. My vision tunneled and I felt myself fall forward, but didn't necessarily feel the impact of my body hitting the ground. I tried my damnedest to fight against the threat of unconsciousness, focusing on the mixture of sounds movements around me.

A demand to stand down by the man and one in return from Chloe to back off. Her faint, petite figure moving, arm raising, silver gun in her hand glinting in the light. Something about not doing anything rash being said in the man's voice. A shout. The crack of a gun firing. The clomp of hurried footsteps. Another man's voice. Maybe even the same man. Another voice. Deep with a southern twang. Ringing. Blood rushing. Lights all around me flashing.

And then nothing.

**Alright, so I may have lied. I decided a couple of paragraphs ago that maybe I should make this a three-parter. One reason being that I know I won't be able to finish what I have planned for this before I go back to work and I didn't want to make you guys wait. And the second reason being because this was just such a good place to end!**

**So, what do you guys think so far? Sweet, I hope you're enjoying this fic as much as I am with writing it! You guys feel free to leave some reviews if you'd like. :) The next part should be up by next weekend!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note- So I took my time finishing up this last part, but I hope you all will forgive me for it. There's a part in here that is actually a result of another One-Shot I'm working on. I wanted to finish it and post it at the same time as this last piece, but it seemed to be taking me a bit longer than I thought, so, I'll try to get it out before next week instead.**

**Regardless, here is the final part of Sweet's Three-Shot and, so I don't keep you all from finding out what happens any longer, I hope you all enjoy!**

**Something to Envy**

**Part 3**

I was in that obnoxious void between being awake and asleep. Any normal person would try to glide back into that blissful unconsciousness, leaving the big bad world to wait just a few more hours for your return. But there was this insufferable nagging somewhere in the back of my head that went on and on about something important I should be awake for. Like that feeling you get when you should wake up and it turns out to be minutes before your alarm clock goes off informing you that you should, in fact, be awake.

So I opened my eyes.

It was probably for the best too. My dreams had been rather strange lately. Nonsense about werewolves and necromancers, my being a half-demon and evil scientists casting experiments on those like me. Men chasing me and two others. A young man and woman who risked their own safety to save my life. But then things went wrong and-

I shot up with a gasp, eyes whipping through my surroundings, recent events returning to me.

Derek was hurt. Shot. And Chloe- she was alone with the man who had hit me with the tranquilizer dart. There had been a gunshot before I went out and more voices and-

"Oh good, you're awake."

My head snapped to the right and I found the charming smile, almond eyes and the dark blonde hair of one Simon Bae.

I blinked, confused, mind still muddled from the effects of the sleeping agent. I could process now that I wasn't in the woods anymore where I had last remembered being. Now I was in a room, walls that had once been a dark color painted over with a half-assed single coat of white paint, as if someone was on the cusps of rejuvenating the room, but had been interrupted in the middle of their process. It was a spacious room, but without much furniture. But I could only assume that most of the furniture had been removed from the room due to the paint job.

It didn't look like the rooms back at the hospital. That was the main thing. And, if I was seeing Simon-for the first time since he and his sister had been separated from me, Chloe and Derek- then that must mean that I was safe. For now at least.

But what about Chloe and Derek? Had Chloe been the one to fire the gun? Had Jeremy and Clayton found us? Was Derek even-

I dispelled all negative thoughts, prayed that I wouldn't get the answers that I was dreading, and opened my mouth to ask Simon what had happened. He spoke before me, however, smile broadening as he took a step closer to the bed I was occupying.

"Three reliefs in one day." He beamed. "It's not a good day's work without some close calls, don't you think?"

"Three reliefs? What do you-" I began to ask, but there was movement behind him and my eyes flickered in that direction.

Across the room was another bed where two men stood and a woman knelt, their backs to me and Simon. One man was a head shorter than the other, with blonde curls and broad shoulders. The taller one had longer black hair and a leaner physique. The woman had a small frame and brilliant golden locks in waves down her back. From behind, I almost thought this woman was Chloe. But it wasn't and, despite Simon's words, I felt a lump form in my throat… until I saw who she was kneeling in front of. There, sitting on the bed, was Derek.

Alive.

A breath of pure relief escaped me as my eyes skimmed over him. His skin was a much healthier color and he seemed to move well as he mimicked simple actions that the taller man was performing, like twisting his torso and stretching in different directions. He winced with every movement but never released a sound. When the taller man seemed satisfied and gave a curt nod of his head, the woman reached up and took in hand the unfinished wrappings around Derek's chest and torso before continuing the patchwork over the gauze marking his bullet wounds.

"I can show you some physical therapy techniques I had used back when the zombie fucked up my right hand," the blonde man said, crossing his arms over his chest as he observed the woman's work. "Modified of course, since your issue isn't going to be direct combat but maneuvering." His voice was just as low as Derek's, but with a distinct southern drawl, just like the second man that had been on the phone with Jeremy.

"Clayton," I murmured, remembering the name that I had correlated with that voice. My eyes bounced over to the dark haired man. "And he's-"

"Yeah, that's Jeremy and Clayton Danvers." Simon said, following my gaze. "They're part of Derek's pack." He made a face as those words escaped his lips before he corrected himself. "Well, it's Jeremy's pack and he asked Derek to join." The furrow in his brows deepened. "Except Jeremy hasn't been the Pack alpha for years now, so I suppose it's Elena Danvers' pack."

Politics; I didn't really care to hear them.

"That woman there is Elena then? The alpha?" I asked, wary as she tied the wrappings tight, earning a hiss from Derek.

"Don't be such a child," she muttered, giving the dressing another tug. Derek grimaced down at her. "Don't give me that face either. You nearly got yourself killed today," She continued to scold, making Derek avert his eyes as if he were a child who had just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Simon snickered and I glanced up at him, confused.

"No, that's not Elena. Someone far scarier," He laughed.

The woman stood, placing a hand on Derek's shoulder before giving it a hard squeeze. He met her gaze and she said, "You promised to keep Chloe safe, that no one could protect her as fiercely as you can. But the last thing I want is you throwing your life away so recklessly to keep that promise, do you understand me?"

"Chloe's mother." I said, drawing that conclusion as Derek nodded slowly. It's what made sense, after all, the woman and Chloe looked so alike.

"Surrogate mother, for all reasons and purposes." Simon corrected. "Lauren is actually Chloe's aunt. But she didn't need the ring on Chloe's finger to start acting like she was Derek's mother-in-law."

"Where is Chloe?" I asked, turning back to Simon. I knew we were all safe now, as we were clearly in Jeremy's care, as was the plan before Derek was hurt. They had found us in the woods and had taken care of Derek's wounds. We were in a house that I took to be Stonehaven, since that's where Jeremy had said we would meet with Simon and Tori when Derek had inquired about them over the phone.

But it didn't settle well with me not seeing Chloe there at Derek's side, or him at hers. Before I went out, she had been left alone with one of those thugs from the hospital. I had been on the cliff of consciousness then and, for all I knew, the gunshot I heard could have been a figment of my imagination. However, I had a gut feeling that it wasn't.

I studied Simon's face as his mask of charming happiness faltered just a fraction. I knew he had been worried about his brother and his friend. I'm sure he was relieved that his brother was going to be okay, but I was also sure that he was putting up a brave front for the new girl who must just be so confused and overwhelmed by all that was happening and what her life had become. He was masking just how scared he had really been and I could tell that that was his job in this pack. To make sure everyone else had their sanity before he lost his.

"Derek's pretty bad whenever Chloe's life is in danger. Pretty much nonfunctional until he can pull himself together." Simon said warily. "But Chloe's worse. Jeremy and Lauren couldn't take care of Derek's wounds until Clayton dragged her away. I expect that she's outside with Jaime, meditating."

Another new name that meant nothing more to me than someone I was sure to meet later.

"Does meditating help her?"

Simon shrugged. "It's been helping her with her necromancy the last few years that Jaime's been instructing her. But I think that Jeremy gave her a choice between leaving the room or a sedative."

When my eyes widened, Simon nodded solemnly.

"Yeah, sometimes that's what we have to result to with these two. That or the cage downstairs."

I'm sure my eyes were the size of saucers at this point, but I hooded them and shook off my shock. I'd seen the way Derek had thrown himself between Chloe and danger. I'd seen how Chloe had fallen apart seeing Derek hurt like that.

If it had been me, what measures would others have to go to in order to calm me down?

"But everyone's alright?" I finally inquired.

"Well, aside from the badass scars Derek's going to have and your psychologically traumatizing day, I think that everyone is going to be fine." He paused for a moment as I processed his words, a significant amount of concern and unease slipping off my shoulders before he asked, "In all seriousness, though, are _you_ alright?"

"Why don't you let the doctor ask those questions while you go and grab your brother some water." Lauren asked as she stepped up behind Simon, having left Derek to continue to run through Jeremy's drills.

Simon sent her a mock, childlike defiant look, but conceded. With a quick, 'Let me know if you need anything,' he left the room.

I met Lauren's eyes and found that they were just as blue as Chloe's and similar in some ways. She smiled at me warmly before speaking.

"Hello, Megara-"

"Meg." I corrected.

"Meg. My name is Lauren."

"Are you an actual doctor?" I asked, not meaning any offence. It's just that I had lived the last week being told that doctors were trying to help me with my condition. Those people had been far from doctors.

"I am. If you're feeling up to it, I'd like to ask you a few questions and see how you're doing after all this." She informed me, waiting for my permission.

"Sure," I muttered, straightening and preparing for her questions. Knowing now that everyone was alive and safe, I felt incredibly tired despite having been knocked out. What I wanted now was sleep, then answers to all the questions I was sure to have later.

Lauren picked up my left wrist, placing two fingers over my pulse as she looked at her watch. She opened her moth to speak, but the next voice I heard wasn't hers.

"Daddy!"

My eyes jumped to the door just as a black blur raced through it. I followed the figure of a small child- a girl- with a trail of black curls billowing behind her as she flew across the room. She cut in between Clayton and Jeremy and leapt right into Derek's lap.

He caught her, swallowing a pained groan as her small frame made contact with his chest. With gritted teeth, he wrapped his arms around the small girl and held her tightly as he gathered himself and recovered from the hit. Her own tiny arms snaked around his neck and Derek's grimace morphed into such a soft smile, he hardly looked like the same stern man I had initially met.

"Hey, baby girl." He murmured, placing a kiss into her hair. She hugged him tighter.

This was Jenni, Derek and Chloe's daughter.

"I thought you were watching her, Nick," I heard Jeremy say. I peeled my eyes away from Derek as he spoke soft reassurances into his daughter's her, telling her that he was fine. Back at the door, there was a new man, a bit older than Derek and heart-stoppingly handsome with chocolate eyes and warm brown curls. He-Nick- shrugged and said, "I'm watching her," tone defensive.

"Its fine," Derek cut in as he hooked his hands beneath Jenni's arms and, with a labored grunt, twisted her around in his lap, pulling her back to his chest. I could see now that she had her father's hair and brilliant green eyes, but she was the spitting image of her mother. For her age- four or five maybe- she looked surprisingly calm and intelligent, though the crease between her brows gave away how scared she must have been when her parents came home and she hadn't been able to see either of them.

"She'd start throwing some punches, even if she was with Nick, if she didn't start getting some answers as to what was going on, right Jenni?" Derek rumbled, giving his daughter's sides a ghost of a teasing tickle. She giggled and squirmed, but settled right back into her father's embrace.

"What about Mommy?" she asked after a second, glancing up at Derek.

"Why don't we go find her?" He suggested. I could see the smiles he was giving his daughter, trying to convince her that he was, in fact, fine and that Chloe was too. But I think even his own daughter was perceptive enough to see the same exact worried crease between his brow as her own.

"You shouldn't be moving around too much, Derek," Lauren said from beside me. I had nearly forgotten that she was there. "And I think Chloe needs a bit more time to calm down. I can bring her by in a couple hours."

Derek shook his head and scooted Jenni off his lap before standing. He only hesitated for a second, gathering himself, then straightened and reached for a clean shirt that was folded on the table beside his bed.

"Derek's got the right idea," Clayton explained to Lauren. Seeing his face now, I could tell that he and Nick looked about the same age and that he wasn't so bad looking either.

What was with these damn werewolves and their seemingly photo-shopped appearances?

"The only way Chloe's going to be calm is if she sees for herself that her family is safe."

So, with Jenni's hand in his, Derek left the room. Lauren released a slightly defeated sounding sigh and turned her attention back to me and taking my blood pressure. Clayton looked about to head over to my bed as well, but Jeremy stopped him, and said that they could ask their own questions about the hospital and the supernaturals involved in the experiments later.

They left as well.

After a few generic questions you usually answered at the doctor's office and a quick check-up of my senses and reflexes, Lauren gave me a melatonin. I looked at it warily, having already been drugged to sleep once and having not been overly fond of the experience.

"Don't worry. It's a supplement of a natural hormone the body produces. But I think it'll help you sleep through everything that's going through your head right now." She laughed suddenly and added, "I remember when we first escaped the Edison Group, all those years ago, and looking at a bottle of these and wondering if I would need to down the whole darn thing in order to sleep that night. But one surely did the trick and prepared me for the work and questions I had to endure the next day."

With a warm, motherly smile, she merely placed the pill on the bedside table and said, "I'd highly suggest taking it, but, you don't have to if you're uncomfortable. You will need your rest, though, before you have to face the dysfunction of this pack." Another laugh.

So Lauren left too, and before I knew it, I was alone in the room. My thoughts were not something I wanted to deal with at this moment so I did take the melatonin, trusting it more now that I had been given the choice to take it or not. I spent the next few minutes staring up at the ceiling, waiting for it to kick in when I heard muffled voices drifting into the room from outside.

Not outside the door, though. The voices were coming from somewhere outside the window.

Curiosities got the better of me and I picked myself up from the bed, padding over a hardwood floor to the window. I was on the second story of this house and I could see now why it was called Stonehaven. There was a room beside mine that protruded from the house so that I could see its stoned architecture and, I was sure that the dense forest around the house made for the perfect sanctuary for werewolves.

The voices came from the ground below where I noticed movement down in the clearing the house stood in. Jenni, the back of her head recognizable, streaked through the yard towards the trees, giggling and squealing the whole way while Derek was a few steps behind her, moving at a surprisingly fast pace considering his injuries. But they both had a purpose as they made their way to the forest and, after a moment I could see why.

Chloe emerged from the trees and kneeled down with her arms open just in time to catch Jenni as she threw herself at her mother. She seemed to be bouncing too much for Chloe to hold her long, a happy little girl that didn't truly know just how close she came to losing her entire world.

As Chloe stood and met Derek, burying her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around his middle, his holding her there as he kissed the top of her head, I wondered just how badly things went wrong as we fled the hospital. Because there was no way that Chloe, and especially Derek, would have risked all of_ this_ if they had known just how haywire their plans would have gone. They wouldn't have even given saving me a second thought if they had truly understood the possibility of one of them leaving this world today, leaving behind their other half and their child. And I wasn't fazed by that thought for one second.

Derek held Chloe so tightly, so fiercely despite the evident pain it was causing him to do so, and it was there that I could see that he wouldn't hesitate to put himself between a gun and Chloe again if it meant that she could stay. If it meant that his daughter would still have her mother. And Chloe held him back just as tight, because, unlike her daughter, she _did_ understand just how close she had come to losing her entire world.

I think that for the sake of their daughter looking on, Chloe and Derek cut their reunification short. However, Chloe seemed to refuse to let Derek go and took hold of his hand when he stepped away. A look passed between them. A secret look that I could only hope to understand and maybe share with someone in the future.

Because Chloe and Derek, my saviors and my distraction through this mind-numbingly chaotic day, had something to envy. Seeing it shared between them so strong and un-severed by an uncomfortably close call allowed me to, for the first time since I'd thrown those erasers at my moronic teacher a week ago, finally relax and feel as if everything was going to be alright.

It gave me hope and an understanding that perhaps everything that had just happened to me would be for the better and that I had just entered a world I'd feel like I finally belonged.

**Hnnnnnnnnnnnnngh! Okay! So I didn't kill Derek. That means you can all stop hating me now and perhaps look forward to the One-Shot I'll be finishing this weekend that will explain the interaction between Derek and Lauren. **

**Yeah, you know you saw it and thought it was weird. :)**

**Let me know what you think! And, Sweet, I hope you have a wonderful and adventurous year as a freshly turned 21-year- old. :p**


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